F-Secure: Finland manages to cope with Downadup worm
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Compared with many other countries, Finland has managed to cope fairly well with the Downadup worm that infects Windows workstations and servers, causing various problems, reports the Finnish IT security provider F-Secure.
F-Secure has recently received several reports of corporate networks across the world getting infected with variants of this worm.
So far the malware has infected a total of around 10 million computers. However, the spreading of the Downadup worm has gradually started to abate.
F-Secure’s Information Security Expert Erkki Mustonen reports that for example in Sweden the number of infected computers has been considerably higher than in Finland.
All the same, the Finnish national Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-FI) continues to register hundreds of reports of the worm every day, says Juhani Eronen, the Information Security Expert of CERT-FI.
Most of the infected computers belong to individual Internet users.
The Downadup worm has managed to gain access to the networks of several large organisations in Finland.
Some of those networks belong to Finnish municipalities, including at least Tuusula and Sastamala, which have both reported on the misbehaviour of their computer systems.
Downadup has not been noticed to cause any outright destruction of computer systems. However, it is regarded as possible that the malware could receive a command from its programmer via the network later on.
The worm can spread to computers through infected USB sticks and networks.
Downadup (also known as Conficker) is a large family of network worms. They are unusually difficult to remove, especially in a case of an internal infection inside a corporate network.
Previously in HS International Edition:
Nordea Bank customers hit by malware incident (27.2.2008)
Hoax message about "Finnish nuclear accident" spreading like wildfire in e-mail (21.2.2008)
New computer worm Sasser shuts down Sampo bank branches (4.5.2004)
Links:
Press release 7.1.2009: F-Secure Warns About a Worm Affecting Corporate Networks
CERT-FI
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 29.1.2009 - TODAY |
F-Secure: Finland manages to cope with Downadup worm
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